WOW sell refurbished consoles, so be careful

Apparently Big-W had the arcade @ $299???  I can't find any info on that on the web other than people claiming they bought it / saw it at that price.  It might be worth keeping a VERY close eye on the Big-W sales (or possibly making a phone call or two) in case that comes around again.

With GTA4, and the GTA4 console pack just around the corner (x360 arcade + GTA4 + Halo3), I expect there to be some VERY promising console prices in the next few weeks.

Hi folks,

I have a question.

As a predominantly PC gamer who has a decent xbox (original) game collection from the olden days, I'm interested in the 360 and have been keeping an eye on the deals, mainly with the help of this site.

I was caught in the PS3/360 debate for ages but realised that the only things really attracting me towards PS3 (MGS, LittleBigPlanet, resistance, motorstorm, GT5 and killzone3, not to mention blu-ray) are probably outweighed by the relative cheapness of the 360, some great games and the backwards compatibility of all my xbox titles which i'm hoping will run mostly fine on a 360, someday upscaled a bit on a decent TV screen. Also I can't stomach forking out $700 for a PS3 I won't be able to afford games for!

I'm hoping someone can tell me whether they've had any experience with the 360 Core (currently in a bundle with creed for $419 at target) + a BYO microsoft xbox HDD for backwards compatibility with old xbox games? I'm only guessing that the HDD is the component which makes any 360 console backwards compatible, if I've got the wrong idea here please someone tell me!

I found the xbox Aus site regarding this:

http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/hardware/console101.htm

And it has a tiny disclaimer next to the bit on the chart about the 360 arcade games compatibility, but I just wanted to hear if anyone has any experience with them.

I also just worked out that the 360 arcade doesn't necessarily have an HDMI port (and definitely doesn't come with a cable), can anyone confirm this?

Also, I don't suppose the 360 arcade + halo3 + GTAIV bundle ever happened did it?

Well, hope someone can give me the low-down on all this, this has been a real helpful site for me as we don't seem to get any junk mail or catalogues, must be a city thing  .

Thanks guys, cheers...

Have to agree with Anthony here. If you're looking for backwards compatibility, might as well go for the Pro bundle. There are a few good deals around. You've got till tomorrow (20th) to grab one at your local Toys'r'us and receive a $200 gift voucher for future purposes. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Not sure if Game still has the Pro 360+GTA4 for $499 offer. That's one hell of a good deal as well.

Id say most games arent.

Thanks folks, that's great info and advice.

Summary: Don't waste time/money on the arcade, wait for an appealing deal on a pro, and make sure the games I'm wanting to play on it are listed as compatible.

I did also just realise though that I won't actually be chucking my original xbox away, I can always just play old games on that... damn, back into the PS3vs360 quandry again...

Thanks guys, I'm in the north of Tas though and the nearest JB and GAME and BigW are about 200kms away so there are only a few relevant deals here for me, but I'll keep an eye on them.

Seriously?
That's gotta be a second hand one or something, because yeah, that price is way smaller than I've ever heard of.

ok, seriously, I am going to have to put this into a txt file and just copy pasta it in.

Acrade packaging if FAR superior to Pro packaging.  The actual Hardware of the console itself is exactly the same, and when the sales are on, the Arcade can be over $200 cheaper.  Even when the Pro goes on sale, a GOOD price is $500.  That is Still $100 more than an arcade that is NOT on sale.  That is insane price hike for the EXACT SAME CONSOLE.

Now, to the pack-ins.
There is not a single pack in found in the Pro Bundle that makes the price difference worth it.  The Component cable?  Can be bought almost anywhere from around $20 for decent third party, but is going to achieve very little gain over the Standard cable that comes with the Arcade. The only people who will actually see any significant difference are those of us with Panel TVs who can run the x360 in HD mode.  If this is the case, you will NOT want the Component cables anyway, as you will want either the VGA, or HDMI cables. This makes the Pro pack's Component cables completely irrelevant.

The Head Set?  Its ****.  Far superior third party ones can be found for as little as $10 if you positively must have a headset and to not already have one from.. you know.. almost anything else that has a headset you already own.

Contrary to what the internet may lead you to believe, the Pro does not come with a remote.  THe previous PREMIUM packaging came with the remote for a while, but I am pretty sure that stopped long before it was replaced by the current Pro Pack, which happened way back at the end of last year.

This brings us to the HDD.  Again, this is completely un-necessary if you just want to play games.  The Arcade pack comes with a 256meg memory unit, and considering most saves are less than one meg, some as little as a few kbs, this unit will almost certainly suffice for all your saves for a long time, possibly the life of the console.

Backwards Compatibility is a farce with the x360.  Anyone who has a decent xbox games collection will be far better off keeping their original xbox console to avoid the headache that is x360 BC travesty.  Remember that your xbox MUST be online for BC to work, as almost NO xbox games will work without patching of some wort that can only be gained off the internet.

That only leaves Live content.  Now, if you are the sort to be attracted to Live, you will want the 120gb HDD, and not the paltry 20gb (about 13gb usable) that comes with the Pro. that 13gb will get eaten by just a few demos, maps, and other DLC.  The 120gb HDD can be found quite easily for $200 around the sales, online etc.  This basically makes the Arcade with 120gb the same price as a Pro that only has 20gb. That is an extra 100gb for the same price.

So.. you can pay up to $200+ MORE for a Pro, but when considering all these factors, it would be an extremely poor economical choice. Personally I bought an Arcade for $340 from Target earlier in the year, and it has played every single game I have put in it perfectly.  That is $160 cheaper than a Pro ON SALE, and has played the exact same games.